Youth Festival

 This blog focuses on the highlights of the Youth Festival 2024, which took place at Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University (MKBU) from 16th October to 19th October, 2024.

- As per the tradition, this time also MKBU celebrated its 32nd Youth Festival with the title 'Bhav-Spandan Yuvak Mahotsav 2024,' which was hosted by the Physical Education Department.

Installation:

In the installation competition, Aakash Chavda, Yashraj Sodha, Parthiv Solanki, and I from the English Department chose "Accident" as our theme, focusing on AI and gender bias. Our concept depicted an AI-controlled train faced with the decision of whom to save, symbolizing gender bias by choosing to save a male over a female. However, the execution fell short, as our train model lacked clarity and didn't convey the intended message, leaving viewers confused. In contrast, other teams, especially those focusing on themes like Worship, created more visually effective installations, with the Gujarati Department winning first place for their detailed Ganesh idol.

- events was particularly memorable, and the university’s support with logistics made the experience even better. As Nelson Mandela once said,

Pride & Prejudice.

 ✴️What is Narrative Film — Overview & History of Narrative Cinema.

If you are a filmmaker or even just a movie buff, odds are you’ve heard the term “narrative film.” Although it is a rather vague term thrown around quite often, it can make a lot of people wonder, “What is a narrative film?” In this article, we’ll clarify the key characteristics to narrative movies and what makes them distinct from other types of film in cinema. We’ll also take a look at the history of narrative cinema and how its origins opened the doors for the films we know and love today.

 First, let’s define narrative film .

As is the case with any other vague film term, "narrative film" can be hard to define as it does not have specific rules. It does, however, have consistent characteristics that can help us define it.

Let’s take a look at the narrative film definition. 

✴️ Illustration of the society of jane Austen's time.

Social history has always interested me. I find it fascinating to know how people used to live, but without a time machine it is very difficult to discover the truth. Etiquette books only tell a part of the story. After all, if everyone had behaved in a proper manner, then there would have been no need for etiquette books in the first place. It stands to reason, therefore, that people generally behaved in a far less restricted manner than the etiquette books imply.

There is a common perception that an unmarried lady could not go anywhere without a chaperon in the Georgian period, but Austen’s novels give the lie to this notion.

In Northanger Abbey, when General Tilney throws Catherine out of the house, she is left to find her own way home. Catherine is only seventeen at the time, and yet, despite travelling alone and not knowing the way, she meets with nothing “to distress or frighten her”. The “three villains in horseman’s greatcoats” mentioned laughingly in the earlier part of the novel are conspicuous by their absence!

Catherine’s mother treats the incident philosophically, saying, “I am glad I did not know of your journey at the time; but now it is over perhaps there is no great harm done. It is always good for young people to be put upon exerting themselves; and you know, my dear Catherine, you always were a sad little scatter-brained creature; but now you must have been forced to have your wits about you, with so much changing of chaises and so forth”. The evil is turned to good. Catherine, far from being ruined for travelling alone on the stagecoach, suffers no harm, either to her person or her reputation.

There is another common perception that a young lady could never be alone with an unmarried gentleman. If that happened, the lady would be compromised and the gentleman would be forced to marry her. This scenario has launched many a Regency romance! But Jane Austen’s novels tell a different story.

Elizabeth Bennet, arguably Austen’s most independent heroine, is in the habit of walking out alone. She ventures to Netherfield Park to visit her sick sister without so much as a maid to accompany her. Indoors, she is often in company with Mr Darcy, and only Mr Darcy, with no chaperon present. When he visits the Rosings parsonage and discovers that Charlotte and Maria are out, he does not hurry away, but instead stays and talks to Elizabeth. No one suggests he has compromised her. And who can forget the time he visits the parsonage to propose, when again she is alone? Elizabeth, far from thinking she must marry him to protect her reputation, roundly abuses him and rejects his offer of marriage.

Elizabeth and Catherine aren’t the only heroines to behave in a “modern” manner. When Lydia Bennet runs away and proceeds to live with Wickham, without the benefit of clergy, her family are shocked, but she is not utterly ruined. A hasty wedding covers the indiscretion and all is well. Mr Bennet, it’s true, declares she will never set foot in the house again, but Mrs Bennet’s love for her daughter prevails. Lydia is welcomed back into the family home and she suffers no ill consequences from her behaviour.

In Sense and Sensibility, Marianne Dashwood is yet another “modern” heroine. She goes out driving alone with Willoughby; she is ready to accept the present of a horse from him, only being prevented from it when Elinor points out the practical problems; and she writes to him. When he proves false, she confronts him in public, caring nothing for her reputation. Who can forget her impassioned cry, ‘Good God, Willoughby! What is the meaning of this? Have you not received my letters? Will you not shake hands with me?’ It might be supposed that all her friends and acquaintances would shun her after this outburst, and that her family would cast her off, but not a bit of it. She is treated with kindness and compassion. Colonel Brandon is so far from being horrified by this unmaidenly behaviour that he marries her, not to save her reputation, but because he loves her.

So when I am tempted to think that our Georgian forebears were rigidly controlled by ideas of decorum; when images of courtly bows and curtseys fill my mind; I go back to Jane Austen and remind myself that our ancestors were people much like us. They lived and loved, as we do. Their society was more formal but, within that framework, people were individuals. Some of them followed the rules, some of them bent the rules and some of them broke the rules altogether. Jane Austen’s pen has an unerring way of showing us our predecessors as living, breathing human beings. They are not cardboard cut-outs, rigidly controlled by social mores. Instead, they are creatures of flesh and blood who feel free to break their social strictures when necessary. In so doing, Austen creates characters who give us an insight into social history, but who are still recognisable as real people today.

✴️Mr.Darcy and Elizabeth never got together? Lydia's elopement had a different outcome 

Samual Richardson's Pamela

 In the novel, Pamela, Or Virtue Rewared, the heroine is pressured by her master to give in to his sexual advances. She does not and through as series of letters we see the story unfold. The realism comes into play with the use of the language in the letters. These letters offer a realistic portrayal of a woman's emotional upheaval, uses everyday laungage and shows the reader how very prone to mistakes and self deception Pamela really is. In fact it is realistic in the fact that it has that combination of truth and doubt that exist in the real world.

What is an Epistolary Novel? -

The term "epistolary novel" refers to the works of fiction that are written in the form of letters or other documents. "Epistolary" is simply the adjectival form of the noun epistle, from the Latinized Greek for letter.

- The letter as a written genre, of course, predates the novel itself. And so as novels emerged in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, it was not uncommon for authors to include letters as part of their overall narrative. These gave readers a chance to hear from characters in their own voices, adding realism and psychological insight, and they usually advance the plot as well.

- The first novel in English to be composed entirely of letters is usually considered to be Love Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister, published in 1684 and attributed to the versatile playwright and author Aphra Behn. Although Behn's characters are fictional, they were modeled on real-life likenesses. Putting their narrative into the form of letters increased the realism of Behn's account, making readers feel as though they were privy to a secret and private correspondence.

-But the epistolary novel really came into its own with the immensely popular novels of Samuel Richardson in the mid-18th century: Pamela in 1740 and the even more massive Clarissa of 1748.

- The full title of Pamela makes clear both Richardson's intentions and the formal apparatus of the novel: Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded, in a Series of Familiar Letters from a Beautiful Young Damsel to Her Parents.

- The beautiful young damsel was already a cliche in Richardson's time. But it's the adjective "familiar" that is important here, because it signaled to readers that what followed would be a series of letters concerning a household and its intimate domestic details. So Pamela's letters are familiar not because anyone had read them before (Richardson made them up, after all) but because they were composed in a free informal style suitable for that of a daughter writing her parents.

Where that novel contains almost exclusively only letters from Pamela, the novel Clarissa includes not just her correspondence but also those of the rakish gentleman Lovelace, who pursues her, giving readers two main perspectives on the action of the narrative.

- In these novels, Richardson perfected a style he called "writing to the moment," in which his characters record their thoughts and actions in what seems to be real time, thus adding further realism immediacy and even suspense to the genre.

- Richardson's novels were so popular that they created a huge vogue for the epistolary novel. As evidence of its popularity, consider that both the first novel written in Canada--Francis Brooke's The History of Emily Montague, from 1769, and the first American novel, The Power of Sympathy, by William Hill Brown, from 1789, were both epistolary in form.

- Now most 18th century epistolary novels feature only one or two letter writers like Richardson's. But a notable exception is a novel published in 1776, Tobias Smollett's The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker. In this epistolary novel, we read letters written by a wide range of characters who are traveling around Britain together.

- The main letter writer is the patriarch of the family, a Welsh gentleman named Matthew Bramble, but we also read letters from his sister, his niece, his nephew, and his sister's maidservant. Their viewpoints on the same locations and activities are often radically different. Bamble is disgusted by the waters at the spa town of Bath, for example, whereas his niece Lydia finds them charming. And it is up to the reader to decide where the truth lies by carefully comparing and juxtaposing their perspectives.

- Ultimately this fractious family is healed only when they leave England altogether for the more hospitable and authentic Scottish sites that make up the latter part of their expedition. At this point, their epistolary perspectives become more harmonized and they head back to their Welsh estate much happier than they were when they began their trip.

- From private correspondence written between family members, then, Smollett makes the epistolary novel into a kind of technology for bringing the whole nation together.

- The epistolary novel fell out of fashion by the start of the 19th century, but there's another famous example of one that really pushes the limits of how the form can operate: I refer to Bram Stoker's Dracula of 1897.

- The novel is composed of a large assortment of different documents and recordings, including not just letters from characters, but also newspaper clippings, diary entries, dictation cylinders, and telegraphs, the last two representing up-to-the-minute technologies in Stoker's day. The result is not just polyvocal and multimedia but also effectively suspenseful, since the reader, being privy to all of the novel's materials, frequently knows more than any single character and can see what is happening or is going to happen more clearly than they. Stoker, in other words, uses the epistolary form to maximize Gothic terror and suspense.

- Today, relatively few novels are written entirely in letters, although there are notable exceptions. C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters from 1942, for example, and Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding, from 1996, which borrows many epistolary tropes in order to make her heroine's misadventures come to life.

- More recently still, emails and texts have begun to make their way into novels. The academic satire Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher, for example, uses letters of recommendation, emails, and other forms of modern communication to paint a very funny picture of a very dysfunctional English Department (one that bears no resemblance whatsoever to our fine institution here at Oregon State University, I should note!)

- And Jennifer Egan's Pulitzer-Prize-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad includes a chapter entirely written in PowerPoint slides.

- Finally, it's worth noting that versions of the epistolary form have found their way into film as well. I'm thinking here of when a movie is presented in terms of "found footage" so that it is made up of what appears to be footage shot by the characters themselves--The Blair Witch Project is probably the best known recent example of this--or by cameras that exists within the frame of the movie itself, say, home videos in the Paranormal Activity franchise.

- And many movies will make use of these tactics temporarily even when the entire movie is not shot that way. A quick shot made to look like it was recorded by a security camera, for example, is often used to add realism immediacy and suspense to our viewing experience.

Tennyson & Browning

 Tennyson as a representative poet of Victorian England.

- The fame of Tennyson, now a little dimmed and tarnished by the breath of Time, occupied this epoch with a great and immediate brilliance. He is unquestionably the representative English poet of his time. He mirrors its ordinary cultivated mind as it shaped in the English temperament and intelligence, with an extraordinary fidelity and in a richly furnished and heavily decorated mirror set round with all the art and device that could be appreciated by the contemporary taste. There has been no more consummate master of the language, and this mastery is used with a careful, sure and unfailing hand. Whatever has to be expressed, whether it be of considerable, mediocre or no worth, is yet given a greater than its intrinsic value by a power of speech which without any such remarkable or astonishing energy as would excite or exalt the mind or disturb it from a safe acquiescence and a

- luxurious ease of reception, has always a sufficient felicity, curiously worked even when it affects simplicity, but with a chastened if not quite chaste curiosity. The turn of phrase almost always hits the mind with a certain, sometimes easy, sometimes elaborate poetic device. It turns always to find and does find the pictorial value of the thing to be described, and even, if such a phrase can be used, the pictorial value of the thought to be seized. There is a similar happiness of device and effect in the verse; if there are no great lyrical, odic or epic outbursts to sweep us out of ourselves, there is the same well-governed craft of effective turn and invention as in the language, the same peculiar manner of easily carried elaborateness, a leisurely but never sluggish self-considering self-adorning flow which succeeds in being immediately received and accepted. The art with which the subject matter is dressed up is of the same kind; a restrained elaborateness, a curious picturesqueness of presentation, a taking, sometimes opulent and effective form. The refinement and felicity are not of a kind which call for any unusual receptive power or aesthetic fineness to meet it and feel all its beauty; there is enough and to spare to attract the cultured, nothing to baffle or exceed the ordinary mind. This art is that of a master craftsman, a goldsmith, silversmith, jeweller of speech and substance with much of the decorative painter in his turn, who never travels beyond general, well-understood and popular ideas and forms, but gives them by his fineness of manner and felicity of image a charm and distinction which belong more properly

- to rarer and greater or lovelier motives. The achievement is of a kind which would hardly be worth doing more than once, but done that once and with such mastery it takes its place and compels admiration. The spirit is not filled and satisfied, much less uplifted, but the outer aesthetic mind is caught and for a time held captive.

* The limitations of his substance and vision

- But it is doubtful whether the future will attach to Tennyson's poetry anything at all near to the value it assumed for the contemporary English mind. When we try to estimate the substance and see what it permanently gives or what new thing it discovers for the poetic vision, we find that there is extraordinarily little in the end. Tennyson wrote much narrative poetry, but he is not a great narrative poet. There is a curious blending of incompatible intentions in all his work of this kind and even his exceptional skill could not save him from a brilliant

- He has on the one side a will to convey some high spiritual and ethical intention of life through the imaginative use of tale and legend, and that could give a scope for a very noble kind of poetry, but he has not the power to lay a great hold on the ancient figures and recreate them to be symbols of a new significance. The Idylls of the King miss both the romantic and the idyllic beauty and arrive only at a graceful decorated effective triviality. The grand old Celtic myths and traditions already strangely

mediaevalised by Malory, but full still of life and large humanity and colour are modernised into a baffling and disappointing superficiality and miss all greatness and power of life. There is no congruity between the form and symbol and the feeling and substance. They seem solely to be used to frame a conventional sentimentalism of Victorian domesticity and respectable social ethics. But the wearing of the white and scentless flower of a blameless life in a correct button-hole and a tepid sinning without the least tinge of passion or conviction by decorated puppets who are too

- The poet has no meditative, no emotional or impassioned, no close or revealing grasp on life, and on the other hand no deep interpretative idea, and without one or other of these things narrative poetry of the modern kind cannot succeed; it becomes a body without soul or life-breath. Even when Tennyson confines himself to the poetic modern tale without these disguises or any motive but the ethically pointed telling, he arrives at the same result, a richly coloured triviality.

* His lack of depth and originality in thought; His representativeness of the Victorian mentality

- This principal work of his maturity fails; its popularity springs from its work of detail and its appeal to the superficial sentiment of the time: but some earlier work of the kind had a nobler success. In the Morte d'Arthur there is some natural magic and vision which if it had been sustained and kept the same delicate and mystic strain, might have made the cycle of idylls a new poetic revelation. In other poems, in the Lotos-Eaters, Ulysses, Oenone, where set narrative

- avoided and the legend is a starting-point or support for thought, vision and beauty, some fullness of these things is reached; but still the form is greater than the substance which has no heights and only occasionally strikes depths. Tennyson does not figure largely as a lyrical poet in spite of one or two inspired and happy moments; for he has neither the lyrical passion and intoxication nor the profounder depth of lyrical feeling. In his description of Nature there is no greater seeing, but a painting of vivid details detached for simile and ornament, and though he worked up a great accuracy of observation and colour, the deeper sincerity of the born Nature-poets is absent. Finally he gives us a good deal of thinking of a kind in often admirably telling phrase and with much art of setting, but he is not a revealing poetical thinker. His thought seldom escapes from the conventional limits of a cultivated, but not a large or original Victorian mind; it beautifies most often the obvious and commonplace or the current and acceptable ideas; with rare exceptions he has neither exaltations nor profundities nor subtleties nor surprises. A great poetical craftsman turning many forms to account for the displaying of an unusual power of descriptive and decorative language and a verse of most skilled device, but no very great purpose and substance, this he is from beginning to end of his creation. His art suffers from the excess of value of form over value of content; it incurs a liability to a besetting note of artificiality, a frequent falsetto tone of prettiness, an excessive stress, a colouring which is often too bright for the stuff it hues and is unevenly laid, but it is always taking and effective. By his very limitation of mind he becomes the representative poet of a certain side of the English mentality, not in its originality and adventurous power, but in its temperate convention and fixity, renders its liberalism and its conservatism, its love of freedom and dislike of idealism, its surface common sense of doubt and traditional belief, its successful way of dealing with its material, its formal ethicism and its absence of passion. But to all these things he brings an artistic decorative quality which is new in English poetry. He has left his stamp on the language and has given starting-points and forms for poets of a rarer force to turn to greater uses and pass beyond them to a new construction.

Assignment paper 105

 Assignment paper 105

 This blog task is part of assignment of paper 105: History of English literature- From 1350 to 1900

 

■ personal information:

Name: Shatakshi Sarvaiya 

Batch: M.A sem 1 (2024-26)

Enrollment number:5108240030

E-mail Address: 

shatakshisarvaiya9@gmail.com 

Roll number: 28

■ Assignment Details:

Topic: The Romantic Age 

Paper & Subject code: Paper- 105: History of English Literature- From 1350 to 1900

Submitted to: SMT. Department of English, Bhavnagar 

Date of submission: 20 November, 2024

■ Table of Contens :

✴ Romantic age (1745-1798)

✴ The Age of Revolution 

✴ Characteristics 

✴ Poets 

✴ Prose writer's 

■ Romantic Age (1745-1798)

The Romantic period in English literature began in 1798 with the publication of Wordsworth's "Lyrical Ballads" and concluded in 1832 with the first Reformation Act. It allowed more people to vote but had limited impact on the lives of the working class.

Around 1785, early figures like William Blake paved the way for Romanticism to emerge. However, it was Wordsworth and Coleridge's joint work, "Lyrical Ballads," published in 1798, that marked the official beginning of literary Romanticism. This collection of poems brought about a significant shift in literature, favoring rural subjects and everyday language over urban settings and grand styles.

- Several key factors shaped literature during this era:

- The French Revolution emphasized the idea of universal freedom and equality.

- The Industrial Revolution led to the rise of large-scale industries, the dissolution of small enterprises, and issues such as slums and child labor.

- In 1830, the first train was introduced and radically changed transportation.

- Steam engines became widely used in various sectors, including transportation and industry.

- The Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 granted Roman Catholics more rights.

- The Penny Post, introduced in 1840, allowed affordable postal communication.

Romanticism extended beyond literature, influencing art, music, and more. It revived themes from the Middle Ages, like chivalry and courtly love, through ballets, operas, and Shakespeare regained popularity.

■ Characteristics of Romanticism:

The Romantic Era is one of the key movements in the history of English literature. It includes many of the literary works that we still read and love today, from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to Herman Melville's Moby Dick.

This article will define the Romantic period and describe ten of the most important characteristics of Romanticism in English literature.

- Emotion and passion

- The critique of progress

- A return to the past

- An awe of nature

- The idealization of women

- The purity of childhood

- The search for subjective truth

- The celebration of the individual

- A break from convention

- Spirituality and the occult

Let’s look at each of these characteristics in more detail and analyze some examples from Romantic poetry and prose.

Characteristic 1: Emotion and Passion

The Romanticists were deeply in touch with their feelings. Emotion was one of the most crucial characteristics of the Romantic period.

Wordsworth said that poetry began as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.” This statement perfectly captures the way that many Romanticists saw emotion as a driving force for art.

Romanticists cared about emotions such as fear, awe, and horror. In stories written by Romantic writers, characters often focus on the more sentimental sides of the story, including their inner struggles, dreams, and passions.

Characteristic 2: The Critique of Progress

Romanticists viewed urbanity and industrialization in a largely negative light. Many Romantic authors understood the importance of progress, but criticized the way it impacted the common people.

Many Romantic writers depicted the ugly side of urbanization and commercialism and used their writing to argue for social change in England.

Mary Shelley’s famous novel Frankenstein (1818) is an example of a Romantic novel that depicted the dangers of technology without emotion.

In the story, Victor Frankenstein is so obsessed with the pursuit of knowledge that he forgets to question his own ethics and ends up creating a monster. At one point, the monster even exclaims: "Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live? Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed?"

Characteristic 3: A Return to the Past

Related to their critique of progress is the fact that Romanticists were fascinated with the past and resurrected it in various forms. They used their writing to remind everyone of what the past had to offer and how far society had moved away from the good old days.

Many Romanticists glorified the Middle Ages and revived elements of literature—such as knights in shining armor and damsels in distress—that were perceived as more medieval.

Characteristic 4: An Awe of Nature

The Romanticists saw nature as a source of beauty and truth. Much of Romantic literature focuses on nature as something sublime.

Take the poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (1807) by William Wordsworth, one of the most famous early Romantic poets.

Characteristic 5: The Idealization of Women

In the Romantic era, women were seen as innocent, pure creatures who should be admired and respected.

Many Romantic poets and novelists centered their narratives around celebrating the purity and beauty of a woman.

Unfortunately, this idealization meant that the Romantic Movement typically saw women as objects for male admiration rather than as people with their own dreams and ambitions. Female writers such as Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, and the Brontë sisters had to publish under male pseudonyms because of these attitudes.

One example of the idealization of women is Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee” (1849)

Characteristic 6: The Purity of Childhood

Romanticists believed that children should be allowed to have a pure, happy childhood.

At the time, many children were forced to work in factories or as chimney sweeps, which was dangerous and grueling work for which they were paid extremely low wages. Romantic writers and poets depicted a different kind of childhood—a happy one full of play instead of work.

This is an excerpt from T.S. Arthur’s short story “An Angel in Disguise” (1851): "The sweetness of that sick child, looking ever to her in love, patience, and gratitude, was as honey to her soul, and she carried her in her heart as well as in her arms, a precious burden."

Characteristic 7: The Search for Subjective Truth

Romanticists believed that truth could be discovered in nature and imagination. They shunned the objective truths of science in favor of the more subjective truths of art.

Self-expression was seen as the way to achieve absolute truth, which was more permanent and more divine than anything discovered with the rational mind. They questioned the notion that there could be any single truth.

The poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (1820) by John Keats is addressed to a marble urn of ancient Greece. The final line of the poem reads: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all.”

Characteristic 8: The Celebration of the Individual

 Many Romanticists saw themselves as self-reliant, independent individuals who stood apart from the rest of society, and some even chose to lead largely isolated, solitary lives.

Characteristic 10: Spirituality and the Occult

As we’ve already discussed, Romanticists were interested in the infinite and the divine. As a result, Romanticism began to include occult and supernatural elements.

Many Romantic poems and stories involve some aspect of the mystical or the “gothic.”

□ poets:

Lord Byron (1788–1824)

 

George Gordan Byron, better known as Lord Byron, was a key poet in the Romantic movement. Among his peers, he was the most flamboyant and had gained quite a reputation for his wild lifestyle and scandalous love life. He was the playboy of his time—rich, famous, swashbuckling, adventurous, a womanizer and a heartbreaker. He had a sharp wit, which when paired with his mercurial temper made him dangerous should one ever cross him. But Byron was very much the sentimental poet who wrote some of the most beautiful poems in the English language. “She Walks in Beauty” is one of his best-loved poems and one of the finest of Romantic poetry. Its lyrical qualities make setting it to music easy—so if you really want to impress your love, why not sing it!

2. Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)

Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the visionary poets who helped define Romanticism, but he was a rather obscure poet who wasn’t widely read or celebrated while he was alive. Only after his untimely death did his poetry begin to receive recognition and be truly appreciated. This is not to say, however, he didn’t have a huge influence on the literary community of his day. He was friends with Lord Byron and John Keats, both of whom inspired and in turn were inspired by Shelley. Like his peers, he was a free spirit and a free-thinker, a humanist, atheist, feminist, socialist, philosopher, and to top it off a wooer of women. “Love’s Philosophy” combines his rhetorical skills and philosophical musings in an attempt to persuade the listener to kiss the poet using arguments that nothing in the world is single.

3. William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

 

One can’t talk about Romanticism without mentioning William Wordsworth, one of England’s most influential Romantic poets and very much nature’s poet. Many of his poems express a reverence for nature, for central to his poetry is this pantheistic idea that love of nature leads to love of humankind. He was friends with Samuel T. Coleridge, and both believed that the role of nature in poetry should help to espouse a unifying pantheism that brings people together for a common good and that an imaginative engagement with the natural world could lead to compassion for all living things. The hippies of the 1960s and ‘70s were a little late in the game on this idea. He wrote using the vocabulary of ordinary people rather than the formal stylized language of poets before him. It was all about communicating feelings honestly without embellishment, and it was a more effective way to write about nature. His poems have a certain elegance in their simplicity, and “Travelling” is a good example of his poetic style.

4. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)

A poet, critic, philosopher, and a drug addict—Samuel Taylor Coleridge was all these and much more. He’s probably best known for Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a poem of great imagination and creativity. Of all the Romantic poets, he was probably the most imaginative and some might say most out there in his thoughts (maybe it was all that opium!). Imagination is the poetic principle that has defined Coleridge’s poetry and indeed what makes his poems great. His poems, notably the ones about love, have a sensuous lyricism, which is one of the defining aspects of Romantic poetry and which many later poets tried to emulate. “Presence of Love” isn’t as well-known as his other poems, but perhaps that makes it all the better on Valentine’s Day

5. John Keats (1795–1821)

John Keats died of tuberculosis at the tragic young age of 25, yet in his short life he left behind a substantial body of work and made a lasting impact on English literature. His friend Joseph Severn painted a portrait of him in 1819 before his death. It was reproduced by William Hilton around 1822 and immortalizes Keats as the young, hopeful yet doomed poet who is aware of his mortality. He is perhaps best known for “La Belle Dame sans Merci” and his odes such as “Ode on a Grecian Urn” and “Ode to a Nightingale”—all dealing with death in some form or another. However, beautiful and moving as they are, they’re not exactly Valentine-grade love poetry, unless your boo is a goth. For something truly romantic, his sonnet “Bright Star” is a lovely poem to share with that special someone.

■ The Age of Revolution:

During the decades of economic and social transformation, western Europe also experienced massive political change. The central event throughout much of the Continent was the French Revolution (1789–99) and its aftermath. This was followed by a concerted effort at political reaction and a renewed series of revolutions from 1820 through 1848.

Connections between political change and socioeconomic upheaval were real but complex. Economic grievances associated with early industrialization fed into later revolutions, particularly the outbursts in 1848, but the newest social classes were not prime bearers of the revolutionary message. Revolutions also resulted from new political ideas directed against the institutions and social arrangements of the preindustrial order. Their results facilitated further economic change, but this was not necessarily their intent. Political unrest must be seen as a discrete factor shaping a new Europe along with fundamental economic forces.

The French Revolution:

Revolution exploded in France in the summer of 1789, after many decades of ideological ferment, political decline, and social unrest. Ideologically, thinkers of the Enlightenment urged that governments should promote the greatest good of all people, not the narrow interests of a particular elite. They were hostile to the political power of the Roman Catholic church as well as to the tax exemptions and landed power of the aristocracy. Their remedies were diverse, ranging from outright democracy to a more efficient monarchy, but they joined in insisting on greater religious and cultural freedom, some kind of parliamentary institution, and greater equality under the law.

Enlightenment writings were widely disseminated, reaching many urban groups in France and elsewhere. The monarchy was in bad shape even aside from new attacks. Its finances were severely pressed, particularly after the wars of the mid-18th century and French involvement against Britain during the American Revolution. Efforts to reform the tax structure foundered against the

opposition of the aristocracy. Finally, various groups in France were pressed by economic and social change. Aristocrats wanted new political rights against royal power. Middle-class people sought a political voice to match their commercial importance and a government more friendly to their interests. The peasant majority, pressed by population growth, sought access to the lands of the aristocracy and the church, an end to remaining manorial dues and services, and relief from taxation.

    storming of the BastilleThe storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, undated coloured engraving.

These various discontents came to a head when King Louis XVI called the Estates-General in 1789 to consider new taxes. This body had not met since 1614, and its calling released all the pressures building during recent decades, exacerbated by economic hardships resulting from bad harvests in 1787–88. Reform leaders, joined by some aristocrats and clergy, insisted that the Third Estate, representing elements of the urban middle class, be granted double the membership of the church and aristocratic estates and that the entire body of Estates-General vote as a unit—they insisted, in other words, on a new kind of parliament. The king yielded, and the new National

Assembly began to plan a constitution. Riots in the summer of 1789 included a symbolic attack on the Bastille, a royal prison, and a series of risings in the countryside that forced repeal of the remnants of manorialism and a proclamation of equality under the laws. A Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen trumpeted religious freedom and liberty of press and assembly, while reaffirming property rights. Church lands were seized, however, creating a rift between revolutionary and Roman Catholic sentiment. Guilds were outlawed (in 1791), as the revolution promoted middle-class beliefs in individual initiative and freedom for technological change. A 1791 constitution retained the monarchy

but created a strong parliament, elected by about half of France’s adult males—those with property.

This liberal phase of the French Revolution was followed, between 1792 and 1794, by a more radical period. Economic conditions deteriorated, prompting new urban riots. Roman Catholic and other groups rose in opposition to the revolution, resulting in forceful suppression and a corresponding growing insistence on loyalty to revolutionary principles. Monarchs

Monarchs in neighbouring countries—notably Britain, Austria, and Prussia—challenged the revolution and threatened invasion, which added foreign war to the unstable mix by 1792. Radical leaders, under the banners of the Jacobin party, took over the government, proclaiming a republic and executing the king and many other leaders of the old regime. Governmental

centralization increased; the decimal system was introduced. Mass military conscription was organized for the first time in European history, with the argument that, now that the government belonged to the people, the people must serve it loyally. A new constitution proclaimed universal manhood suffrage, and reforms in education and other areas were widely discussed. The radical phase of the revolution brought increasing military success to revolutionary troops in effectively reorganized armies, which conquered parts of the Low Countries and Germany and carried revolutionary laws in their wake. The revolution was beginning to become a European phenomenon.

Jacobin rule was replaced by a more moderate consolidation after 1795, during which, however, military expansion continued in several directions, notably in parts of Italy. The needs of war, along with recurrent domestic unrest, prompted a final revolutionary regime change, in 1799, that brought General Napoleon Bonaparte to power.

■ prose writer:

1. John Keats 

2. Lord Byron 

3. Jane Austen 

4. Mary Shelley 

5. Johan Clare .

■ Conclusion:

 

In a nutshell.

■ My Reference are:

“History of Europe - Age of Revolution, Enlightenment, Industrialization.” Britannica, 29 October 2024, https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe/The-age-of-revolution. Accessed 19 November 2024.

“The Romantic Period - Eastern.” Eastern Connecticut State University, https://www.easternct.edu/speichera/understanding-literary-history-all/the-romantic-period.html. Accessed 19 November 2024.

Tennyson, Alfred, and A. Tennyson. “The Romantic Age: an Introduction.” literature...no trouble, https://www.literature-no-trouble.com/the-romantic-age2/. Accessed 19 November 2024.

Wigley, Julie. “The Romantics | British Literature Wiki.” WordPress at UD |, https://sites.udel.edu/britlitwiki/the-romantics/. Accessed 19 November 2024.

Thank you........

Assignment 104

     Assignment Paper 104 

    This blog task is a part of assignment of paper

      104: Literature of the Victorians.

    ■ personal Information:

   Name: Shatakshi Sarvaiya

    Batch: M.A Sem 1 (2024-26)

    Enrollment number: 5108240030

    E-mail Address: 

     shatakshisarvaiya9@gmail.com

   Roll number: 28

   ■ Assignment Details:

  Topic: Alfred Tennyson his Biography and as a Poet

   paper & Subject code: paper 104: Literature of victorians

   Submitted to: SMT. Department of English, Bhavnagar

   Date of Submission: 20 November,2024

   ■ Table of Contens:

  ✴ Introduction ( Alferd Tennyson)

   ✴ Work

   ✴ Theme 

   ✴ Characteristics

  ■ Introduction:

  Alfred, Lord Tennyson (born August 6, 1809, Somersby, Lincolnshire, England—died October 6, 1892, Aldworth, Surrey) was an English poet often regarded as the chief representative of the Victorian age in poetry. He was raised to the peerage in 1884.

Tennyson was the fourth of 12 children, born into an old Lincolnshire family, his father a rector. Alfred, with two of his brothers, Frederick and Charles, was sent in 1815 to Louth grammar school—where he was unhappy. He left in 1820, but, though home conditions were difficult, his father managed to give him a wide literary education. Alfred was precocious, and before his teens he had composed in the styles of Alexander Pope, Sir Walter Scott, and John Milton. To his youth also belongs The Devil and the Lady (a collection of previously unpublished poems published posthumously in 1930), which shows an astonishing understanding of Elizabethan dramatAt the lonely rectory in Somersby the children were thrown upon their own resources. All writers on Tennyson emphasize the influence of the Lincolnshire countryside on his poetry: the plain, the sea about his home, “the sand-built ridge of heaped hills that mound the sea,” and “the waste enormous marsh.”

In 1824 the health of Tennyson’s father began to break down, and he took refuge in drink. Alfred, though depressed by unhappiness at home, continued to write, collaborating with Frederick and Charles in Poems by Two Brothers (1826; dated 1827). His contributions (more than half the volume) are mostly in fashionable styles of the day.

In 1827 Alfred and Charles joined Frederick at Trinity College, Cambridge. There Alfred made friends with Arthur Hallam, the gifted son of the historian Henry Hallam. This was the deepest friendship of Tennyson’s life. The friends became members of the Apostles, an exclusive undergraduate club of earnest intellectual interests. Tennyson’s reputation as a poet increased at Cambridge. In 1829 he won the chancellor’s gold medal with a poem called Timbuctoo. In 1830 Poems, Chiefly Lyrical was published; and in the same year Tennyson, Hallam, and other Apostles went to Spain to help in the unsuccessful revolution against Ferdinand VII. In the meantime, Hallam had become attached to Tennyson’s sister Emily but was forbidden by her father to correspond with her for a year.

In 1831 Tennyson’s father died. Alfred’s misery was increased by his grandfather’s discovery of his father’s debts. He left Cambridge without taking a degree, and his grandfather made financial arrangements for the family. In the same year, Hallam published a eulogistic article on Poems, Chiefly Lyrical in The Englishman’s Magazine. He went to Somersby in 1832 as the accepted suitor of Emily.

In 1832 Tennyson published another volume of his poems (dated 1833), including “The Lotos-Eaters,” “The Palace of Art,” and “The Lady of Shalott.” Among them was a satirical epigram on the critic Christopher North (pseudonym of the Scottish writer John Wilson), who had attacked Poems, Chiefly Lyrical in Blackwood’s Magazine. Tennyson’s sally prompted a scathing attack on his new volume in the Quarterly Review. The attacks distressed Tennyson, but he continued to revise his old poems and compose new ones.

In 1833 Hallam’s engagement was recognized by his family, but while on a visit to Vienna in September he died suddenly. The shock to Tennyson was severe. It came at a depressing time; three of his brothers, Edward, Charles, and Septimus, were suffering from mental illness, and the bad reception of his own work added to the gloom. Yet it was in this period that he wrote some of his most characteristic work: “The Two Voices” (of which the original title, significantly, was “Thoughts of a Suicide”), “Ulysses,” “St. Simeon Stylites,” and, probably, the first draft of “Morte d’Arthur.” To this period also belong some of the poems that became constituent parts of In Memoriam, celebrating Hallam’s death, and lyrics later worked into Maud.

In May 1836 his brother Charles married Louisa Sellwood of Horncastle, and at the wedding Alfred fell in love with her sister Emily. For some years the lovers corresponded, but Emily’s father disapproved of Tennyson because of his bohemianism, addiction to port and tobacco, and liberal religious views; and in 1840 he forbade the correspondence. Meanwhile the Tennysons had left Somersby and were living a rather wandering life nearer London. It was in this period that Tennyson made friends with many famous men, including the politician William Ewart Gladstone, the historian Thomas Carlyle, and the poet Walter Savage Landor.

■ Work (Tennyson):

In 1842 Tennyson published Poems, in two volumes, one containing a revised selection from the volumes of 1830 and 1832, the other, new poems. The new poems included “Morte d’Arthur,” “The Two Voices,” “Locksley Hall,” and “The Vision of Sin” and other poems that reveal a strange naïveté, such as “The May Queen,” “Lady Clara Vere de Vere,” and “The Lord of Burleigh.” The new volume was not on the whole well received. But the grant to him at this time, by the prime minister, Sir Robert Peel, of a pension of £200 helped to alleviate his financial worries. In 1847 he published his first long poem, The Princess, a singular anti-feminist fantasia.

The year 1850 marked a turning point. Tennyson resumed his correspondence with Emily Sellwood, and their engagement was renewed and followed by marriage. Meanwhile, Edward Moxon offered to publish the elegies on Hallam that Tennyson had been composing over the years. They appeared, at first anonymously, as In Memoriam (1850), which had a great success with both reviewers and the public, won him the friendship of Queen Victoria, and helped bring about, in the same year, his appointment as poet laureate.

In Memoriam is a vast poem of 131 sections of varying length, with a prologue and epilogue. Inspired by the grief Tennyson felt at the untimely death of his friend Hallam, the poem touches on many intellectual issues of the Victorian Age as the author searches for the meaning of life and death and tries to come to terms with his sense of loss. Most notably, In Memoriam reflects the struggle to reconcile traditional religious faith and belief in immortality with the emerging theories of evolution and modern geology. The verses show the development over three years of the poet’s acceptance and understanding of his friend’s death and conclude with an epilogue, a happy marriage song on the occasion of the wedding of Tennyson’s sister Cecilia.

After his marriage, which was happy, Tennyson’s life became more secure and outwardly uneventful. There were two sons: Hallam and Lionel. The times of wandering and unsettlement ended in 1853, when the Tennysons took a house, Farringford, in the Isle of Wight. Tennyson was to spend most of the rest of his life there and at Aldworth (near Haslemere, Surrey).

Tennyson’s position as the national poet was confirmed by his Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington (1852)—though some critics at first thought it disappointing—and the famous poem on the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava, published in 1855 in Maud and Other Poems. Maud itself, a strange and turbulent “monodrama,” provoked a storm of protest; many of the poet’s admirers were shocked by the morbidity, hysteria, and bellicosity of the hero. Yet Maud was Tennyson’s favourite among his poems.

A project that Tennyson had long considered at last issued in Idylls of the King (1859), a series of 12 connected poems broadly surveying the legend of King Arthur from his falling in love with Guinevere to the ultimate ruin of his kingdom. The poems concentrate on the introduction of evil to Camelot because of the adulterous love of Lancelot and Queen Guinevere, and on the consequent fading of the hope that had at first infused the Round Table fellowship. Idylls of the King had an immediate success, and Tennyson, who loathed publicity, had now acquired a sometimes embarrassing public fame. The Enoch Arden volume of 1864 perhaps represents the peak of his popularity. New Arthurian Idylls were published in The Holy Grail, and Other Poems in 1869 (dated 1870). These were again well received, though some readers were beginning to show discomfort at the “Victorian” moral atmosphere that Tennyson had introduced into his source material from Sir Thomas Malory.

In 1874 Tennyson decided to try his hand at poetic drama. Queen Mary appeared in 1875, and an abridged version was produced at the Lyceum in 1876 with only moderate success. It was followed by Harold (1876; dated 1877), Becket (not published in full until 1884), and the “village tragedy” The Promise of May, which proved a failure at the Globe in November 1882. This play—his only prose work—shows Tennyson’s growing despondency and resentment at the religious, moral, and political tendencies of the age. He had already caused some sensation by publishing a poem called “Despair” in The Nineteenth Century (November 1881). A more positive indication of Tennyson’s later beliefs appears in “The Ancient Sage,” published in Tiresias and Other Poems (1885). Here the poet records his intimations of a life before and beyond this life.

Tennyson accepted a peerage (after some hesitation) in 1884. In 1886 he published a new volume containing “Locksley Hall Sixty Years After,” consisting mainly of imprecations against modern decadence and liberalism and a retraction of the earlier poem’s belief in inevitable human progress.

In 1889 Tennyson wrote the famous short poem “Crossing the Bar,” during the crossing to the Isle of Wight. In the same year he published Demeter and Other Poems, which contains the charming retrospective “To Mary Boyle,” “The Progress of Spring,” a fine lyric written much earlier and rediscovered, and “Merlin and the Gleam,” an allegorical summing-up of his poetic career. In 1892 his play The Foresters was successfully produced in New York City. Despite ill health, he was able to correct the proofs of his last volume, The Death of Oenone, Akbar’s Dream, and Other Poems (1892).

■ Theme of Tennyson's poem: 

✴Death:

The great poets commonly take up the subject of death in their works, but it is rare to see a great poet treat death in such a sustained and deeply personal way as Tennyson does. Many of his greatest works were written in the aftermath of the death of his closest friend, Arthur Henry Hallam. “Ulysses” is about the great hero searching for life in spite of old age and coming death, and “Tithonus” concerns the weariness of life on earth when all one wants to do is fade into the earth and no longer linger on. “The Two Voices” is a debate about whether or not to commit suicide. “In Memoriam” is the poet’s lengthy meditation on his profound grief and his desire to know what happens after death as well as his occasional musing that he wishes to die and join his friend. As “In Memoriam” proceeds, however, Tennyson appears to accept the reality of death in the natural cycle of life and to understand that he can still find pleasure on earth until his time comes. He looks forward to his reunion with Hallam and believes that his friend’s death occasioned his transcendence to a higher spiritual state. The acceptance of death is manifested in one of his last works, “Crossing the Bar,” in which he looks upon his passage from life to death as a meaningful and happy occasion.

✴ Nature:

Nature plays many roles in Tennyson’s poetry. Occasionally she is beguiling and sensuous, as in “The Lotos-Eaters.” In that poem the men sojourning on the isle are entranced by their natural surroundings and do not want to return to their normal lives. Nature is also an ever-present reminder of the cycle of life from birth to death; existing outside of that cycle can bring grief and separation from one’s mortal humanity, for better or for worse. Occasionally Nature is a reminder of the vitality of life and existence; other times Nature is used as a metaphor for death (see “Break, break, break” for the former and “Crossing the Bar” for the latter). Finally, Nature can also be chaotic, hostile, and indifferent to Man. The casual way she discards species and wreaks havoc leads the poet to conclude that life might be meaningless.

✴Grief:

Grief permeates Tennyson’s poetry and was a major feature of Tennyson’s emotional life. He endured the deaths of his parents, the ensuing mental illness and addictions of many of his family members and, as a kind of muse, the death of his close friend Arthur Henry Hallam. His poems are frank discussions of despair and the trouble of using words sufficient to express it, and he demonstrates the significance of writing poetry in the face of sorrow and loss. In some of the poems his grief is overwhelming, and he does not know if he wants to continue living. In others he finds ways to manage his grief, coming to accept that sorrow may always be a part of one’s life, while acknowledging other things in life inspire happiness and hope.

✵Artistic Isolation:

Tennyson struggled with the question of whether great art had to be produced in artistic isolation or if engagement with the world was acceptable and would not cloud artistic vision. In “The Lady of Shalott” he examines this question. Her island is a safe haven for artists, and she creates her magic web in contentment. However, she is not actually creating reality, since she only sees things reflected in the mirror, and she eventually tires of her estrangement from life and love. When she chooses to look out the window and leave her tower, thus breaking the rule in the curse, she chooses to embrace a full and passionate life. However, this life is actually death, and her art is destroyed as well. The poem suggests that the end of artistic isolation brings a loss of creativity and artistic power.

✴Spirituality:

Tennyson adhered to a Christian faith that can most vividly be seen in “In Memoriam,” but he was not wary of expressing his difficulties with that faith and religious belief, particularly in the wake of the death of Hallam. He engages with the scientific findings of the Victorian era, wondering whether Nature is truly indifferent to Man and whether death only brings obliteration of the soul. He finds it difficult to be optimistic and positive that he will be reunited with Hallam after death and that there is any purpose in living. The poet’s lapses in faith, however, are reconciled by the end of the poem. He moves from doubt to acceptance, certain once more that the spirit is not gone after death but lives on and progresses to a higher state. He believes that God does have a plan for human beings and that one’s presence on earth is not accidental or unheeded.

✴Time:

Many of Tennyson’s works reflect his working through the implications of time. Growing old and lingering on are laborious and enervating in poems like “Tithonus” and “The Two Voices,” while in “Ulysses” the title character wants to keep adventuring as long as he can. Life on earth can be very sad because one is separated from loved ones who have died and because knowledge is limited. Time is also complicated by the tensions between science and religion; science reveals that time stretches on for a very long time, and religion asserts but does not prove what happens after death. Generally the poet’s reflection is that life is fleeting and short, wasted if one dwells merely in sadness or in hope, and worth savoring while it lasts.

✴ Courage:

Many of Tennyson’s greatest poems feature individuals displaying great courage, especially under duress. Courage is a universally admired virtue, but during the Victorian age and for the British in particular, it was extremely important. “The Charge of the Light Brigade” features the “noble” six hundred soldiers who rush into a battle even though they know they will probably perish; their courage and willingness to follow orders are exemplary. Similarly, Tennyson creates a highly sympathetic character in Princess Ida from “The Princess: A Medley.” She is firmly committed to her vision and does not yield to those who wish to dissuade her from her noble goal of securing gender equality. In “Morte d’Arthur,” one of the most heroic men in legendary history, King Arthur, is depicted demonstrating his courage not in the heat of battle but in his willingness to face death; much like Ulysses. Courage is perhaps the greatest Tennysonian virtue.

■ Characteristics of Tennyson poetry:

Characteristics of Alfred Lord Tennyson Poetry | Best Victorian Poet

hencecharacteristics that support the Victorian age are there in his poetry. One of the bestreasons which built the personality of Tennyson as a poet was his dramaticmonologues. In the Victorian era, there was much development in every field of life;mainly in music, art and literature. Poetry that was written in that era rejected the idea of romanticism. It became highly philosophical; therefore, most of the poetry representsphilosophical ideas. In his poetry, Lord Tennyson talks about the past, especially aboutthe Greeks; therefore, there is rebirth of Greek myths in his poems. He writesintellectual poems with modern philosophy along with a blend of philosophical ideas

To discuss the characteristics of Tennyson’s poetry, his poetry reflected his notion of thoughts. Tennyson wanted to escape the harsh reality with which he was not content about. So, he took the world of imagination like the romantic writers to pass an escape whilst giving a message indeed.

✴Imagination in his poetry:

While moving on to the characteristics of Tennyson’s poetry, he very well portrayed his imagination into words which makes us feel that image right in our eyes. Whereas creating imagery while reading his poems. In Tithonus, the way dawn falls, the arrival of goddess aurora makes us visualize how the darkness falls off and light of dawn gleams in shaking off the darkness.

The imaginative land of lotus eaters, when we go through the poem, we are bound to see a land behind the curtains of our eyes where the streams flow on drowsily, moon above the valley in an afternoon and the red gleams of the west as if it’s the time of sunset. The image we can visualize feels so real due to the merging of mood and nature as if we can feel those weary sailors who once longed to reach their fatherland. 

✴Style:

Tennyson uses Dramatic monologue in some of his poems unlike Browning who is the king of it. A poem written in dramatic monologue means the imagined speaker addresses a silent listener which is not the reader. As if a silent listener is hearing it all but not responding which would make it seem conversational. The ‘story’ or what happens is a movement in thought and emotion and it is not presented in a direct narration. In Tithonus, Goddess Aurora is the silent listener of Tithonus. Although Tennyson somewhat made use of this method, his poetry had allusions or was based on classical mythology. Thus making it the leading characteristics of Tennyson’s poetry.

✴Myth:

Tennyson was not against the revolution of scientific discoveries that were taking place. Rather, how it drew people apart from each other and as well as from spirituality. The more people were getting towards advancement, the more it drew them apart from their creator and hence making humans forget their boundaries. He very well tried to portray his ideas through the use of myth. Tithonus is like a complete fairytale where a goddess and a human can get married. The reference of Goddess of dawn has been taken from ancient Greek. The concept of providing boon to a human such as immortality is an element of myth. 

✴Greek Mythology:

Classical legendary figures and myths rule in Tennyson’s poetry. He brings mythical elements which feels like fairytale, showing his glory for past, being nostalgic for that period; the classic. 

For instance, in The Lotus Eaters

” To muse and brood and live again in memory”

Tennyson adds elements of nostalgia as he himself glorified the past, to go back to classic, something old which is to cherish. 

Even Tithonus in Tithonus laments by remembering his past that how glorified he was that Aurora chose her.

” Alas! For this gray shadow, once a man—

So glorious in his beauty and thy choice”

He even named a complete poem with a classical legend, Ulysses, Odysseus of Homer’s Iliad. In the poem we can figure the mention of Achilles, the great warrior of Troy and in Tithonus, the mythical God Apollo’s song.

We even have this classical figure in another poem The Lotus eaters, where Ulysses and his companion sailors, who long to get back to their land and reaches a shore. Such stories are famous myths which we often grew up hearing. Like fairytale we are introduced to a strange land which can only exist in our imagination. 

How astonishing it might be for the Victorian people to know that a man felt idle being titled as a king! Ulysses wanted to leave his life of luxury in thirst for adventure, particularly to widen his depth of life and knowledge then sitting idle. Imagine the Victorian or Modern people in that situation. Would they ever leave the life of opulence in order to gain something providing inner passion? Rather they run behind the materialistic world, earning more and more wealth. Tennyson sort of criticized the Victorian people through his work.

✴Symbols:

Since ages writers have been using symbols to incarnate a meaning through something else. Certainly it is a characteristic of Tennyson’s poetry as well. 

The lotos plant in The Lotos-eaters is a symbol of escape from the world of responsibility. Just as the God who are careless of mankind. It signifies that apart from this hasty life one needs rest as well as one day we are to die.

Tithonus trying to attain a virtue of God symbolizes that man should not try to cross his boundaries of being a human or else the outcome won’t be fruitful and can lead to adverse. 

Sea/water serves as both the means of a character’s imprisonment and the opportunity for their freedom. Imprisonment that the sailors

■ Conclusions: 

Alfred Lord Tennyson in Biography Literaria in about Tennyson like,born,dide, education all this things and Alfred Tennyson major works and there are seven themes . Tennyson five characters about life and work.                     In a nutshell.

■ My Reference are:

Wallace, William, and Susie Steinbach. “Alfred, Lord Tennyson - Poet, Poems, Victorian.” Britannica, 25 October 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alfred-Lord-Tennyson/Major-literary-work. Accessed 19 November 2024.

Tennyson, Alfred. “Tennyson's Poems Themes.” GradeSaver, 22 December 2023, https://www.gradesaver.com/tennysons-poems/study-guide/themes. Accessed 19 November 2024.

“Characteristics of Tennyson's Period | PDF | Poetry | Realism (Arts).” Scribd, https://www.scribd.com/document/567293312/Characteristics-of-Tennyson-s-period. Accessed 19 November 2024.

Thank you........